Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
The Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated the Punjab Kings in the first match of Sunday's doubleheader by seven wickets. The 2016 champions pulled off a vintage performance as they dominated the opposition with their fast bowling. Umran Malik had an incredible performance as he picked up four wickets for 28 runs and won the Player of the Match award.
In the second innings, SRH batters Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran played composed knocks to take their team over the finish line. All four players scored over 30 runs as they chased down the total in 18.5 overs.
In the second match of the day, the Gujarat Titans defeated the reigning champions Chennai Super Kings by three wickets at the MCA Stadium in Pune. Chennai had a great start to their game with home-town hero Ruturaj Gaikwad scoring 73 runs in 48 balls along with Ambati Rayudu’s 46. Similarly, they also dominated in the early moments of the second innings by taking quick wickets.
Mukesh Choudhary and Maheesh Theekshana wreck havoc as they took three wickets in their combined seven overs at an economy of 6. Dwayne Bravo also had a good game picking up three wickets for 23. But CSK still couldn’t get over the line as David Miller smashed 94 runs in 51 balls to pull off an amazing comeback victory for Gujarat.
Changes in the Points table
After the twenty-eight match, Sunrisers Hyderabad jumped to the fourth spot after winning their fourth straight match. They have eight points with a net run rate of -0.077. While Punjab Kings are seventh on the table with six points and a net run rate of +0.109.
Then after the 29th match, Gujarat Titans continue to reign supreme as the number one seed in the 2022 IPL. The Titans have 10 points from six games with a net run rate of +0.395. Whereas the Chennai Super Kings are ninth on the table with one win from six games. The four-time champions have two points with a net run rate of -0.638.
Today’s Matchup
The Rajasthan Royals will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 30th match of the tournament. Both teams enter this game after losing their previous games. Rajasthan lost to the Gujarat Titans by 37 runs. Whereas Kolkata was defeated by the Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets.
What did the winning captains say?
Gujarat Titans’ stand-in captain Rashid Khan was extremely happy with the team’s difficult victory and said, “It's an amazing feeling in IPL, it's a dream come true to lead the team and delivering that is something special. Just that we wanted to take the game deep. We were capable of chasing 90 runs in the last 7 overs, and that was the plan. We were trying to take the game as deep as possible.”
“I haven't batted in the first 5 games, that was the discussion, so I wanted to take the responsibility. We wanted two batters to score big, I just had a discussion with Miller and we tried to strike the ball hard. I needed to step up and take the responsibility, just wanted to back myself and that was the plan”, Khan added.
SRH captain Kane Williamson was elated with the team’s performance as he said,” It's been a nice period of play for us as a side. There's been a lot of growth. It's a long season, lot of cricket left. As a side, it's important we continue to look to improve. Today was a really strong performance on a surface that was a little bit different. Every team is strong, but for us, it's just focusing on our cricket. Every team is so different from the previous year after a big auction, so it's hard to look back too far.”
“Certainly our attention is on the side in terms of the contributions that we want to make, the style of cricket that we want to play and so far there's been a lot of learning. Guys are enjoying their cricket as well and adjusting nicely. We know the challenges come thick and fast and we'll be looking forward to our next one. Both (Markram and Pooran) made outstanding contributions in the first half of this competition so far and both are clearly quality players.”
“We've chased every game so far and they've been there at the end and done it beautifully. It's important for all of us we keep looking to continue to play our roles and give as much as we can to the team. Stats suggest one thing but at the end of it, it's what's the style of cricket that is going to give us the best chance and how we can commit to that as best as we can. So far we've managed to put out some strong performances and we'll continue to try and improve and put out better ones”, Williamson conclued.